SCRUB ROBIN. 
dark brown, the fourth, fifth, and sixth marked with white on the outer webs and 
a white mark at the base of all the quills on the inner webs, which increases in 
extent towards the innermost secondaries ; rump, upper tail-coverts, and fringes 
to central tail-feathers russet-brown ; tail-feathers dark brown inclining to blackish 
on the outer ones which are tipped with white ; a black spot in front of the eye ; 
eyelids, base of lores, and base of the feathers on the fore-part of the cheeks whitish 
like the chin ; throat, breast, and sides of breast pale drab-grey like the axillaries 
and under wing-coverts becoming fulvous on the abdomen, vent", under tail-coverts, 
and lower flanks ; under-surface of flight-quills hair-brown, with a patch of white 
across the base like the greater series of the under wing-coverts ; lower aspect of 
tail pale brown, darker towards the apical portion of the outer feathers which are 
tipped with white. Bill and feet dark greyish-black ; eyes dark brown. Total 
length 230 mm. ; culmen 14, wing 96, tail 108, tarsus 40. ' Figured. Collected at 
Coonalpyn (90 miles desert), South Australia, on the 17th of May, 1911. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male but smaller. 
Immature. General colour of the upper-surface smoke-brown with whitish shaft-lines to 
the feathers ; the feathers on the back are narrowly fringed with black at the tip ; 
upper- wing coverts subterminally white and narrowly edged with brown ; bastard- 
wing blackish margined with white on the outer web ; primary-coverts uniform 
blackish ; flight-quills also blackish with whitish or ochreous-brown edging on the 
outer webs ; upper tail-coverts dark chestnut ; tail blackish with dark buff tips to 
the feathers, some of the outer feathers tipped with white ; under-surface white with 
dark brown margins to the feathers ; vent white ; under tail-coverts buff ; under- 
surface of flight-quills dark brown ; lower aspect of tail dark brown with smoke- 
coloured tips to the feathers. Eyes hazel, feet and legs dark flesh, bill purplish horn. 
Collected at Broome Hill, South-west Australia, on the 5th of November, 1910. 
Nest. £ ‘ Cup-shaped, somewhat loosely constructed ; composed of strips of bark outwardly 
protected by twigs, and fined inside with grass and a few rootlets ; situated in a 
slight hollow scraped in the ground in thick wattle scrub. Dimensions over all 
7 to 8 inches ; egg cavity 3 inches across by 2 inches deep.” (A. J. Campbell.) 
Eggs. Clutch, one. Ground-colour greenish-grey, spotted and blotched with brown, 
sometimes forming a zone at the larger end. 25 mm. by 19. 
Breeding-season. September to November or January. 
The many strange forms which accrued to Gould as the result of his 
adventurous policy of investigating the Australian avifauna personally were 
fortunately mostly separated as distinct generic types. His personal know- 
ledge enabled him to override the stay-at-home opposition and his genera 
have been continually accepted until the present day with little discussion. 
In the present case he proposed the genus name Hylodes at the meeting of 
the Zoological Society and then altered it to Drymodes, and the latter name 
was published by Gould without any indication of alteration. 
Gould’s notes read : “I discovered this singular bird in the great Murray 
scrub, where it was tolerably abundant ; I have never seen it from any other 
part of the country, and it is doubtless confined to such portions of Australia 
as are clothed with a similar character of vegetation. It is a quiet and inactive 
species, resorting much to the ground, over which and among the underwood 
207 
